Qualcomm wants to replace eSIMs with iSIMs, has the first certified SoC

It's not only french companies producing them and the entities who are involved in pushing SIM replacements aren't as interested in mundane things such as marketshare, money etc. as you might think.

Don't forget this one for example: https://theintercept.com/2015/02/19/great-sim-heist/

I don't think the french abuse their SIM-powerposition, otherwise they would not force states like Palestine into using weaker encryption and such.

You don't even need Dual-SIM phones, contemporary SIM can contain various numbers/administrations. Both with and without hackery involved. It's just that the carriers don't want it / block it. This is also why many of them outright refuse to sell phones with dual SIM capability.

I haven't worked on iSIM myself, but I have colleagues that work on integrating iSIM onto an SoC.

The procedure around integrating an iSIM into an SoC is ridiculously strict. The integration and simulation has to happen on a workstation in a special room, not connected to the rest of the network, with camera surveillance, etc.

> We're also supposed to trust Qualcomm that this is secure

I don't know if Qualcomm can do things differently. I don't know if they can design the iSIM themselves instead of integrating from a trusted third party. But I doubt that the security requirement is any less strict. Telecom operators seem to be extremely paranoid about this stuff.

Essentially, it seems like it's not that much different from eSIM, you're just putting a similar kind of trusted module on the SoC instead of on the PCB.

> together with it's anti-tampering design

I'd be very surprised if iSIM and the whole Qualcomm SoC isn't designed with anti-tampering mechanisms. Seems like anti-tampering is becoming a general requirement for SoCs (with upgradable firmware and root-of-trust) being designed now.

TBH I didn't know eSIM was some physical extra hardware albeit small.

I'm surprised that eSIM isn't what iSIM is in the first place: some negligible module inside the IC.

Oh well I guess I should plan on stopping the usage of smartphones in a few years and start calling my congressman and lobbying to have laws that allow me to function in society without a smartphone.

I hated eSIMs but at least I could solder them off like bluetooth,gps or even wifi sometimes for some devices like the kindle paper (I just upload books to it with USB).

I know there is market demand for laptops with hardware key switches and that are pro-privacy but how big or competitive is it?

I want to make disconnected versions of products. From TVs to appliances, home automation, camera systems and smart phones (of course not on my own lol). I call this vision of products "smarter technology", because my goal is not to reduce functionality or features but to engineer products in a smarter way that does not require internet connectivity (but in some cases a hardware switch can enable network/radio connectivity. I am desparately searching for products like this these days.

An IP camera that is effectively PoE powered but acts like a webcam for your desktop when you set it up that way or with a mini-dvr that will stream it locally via wifi/ethernet or optionally through a paid cloud subscription (profit $$$). I want that.

A car with a hardware button to turn off connectivity features but also has all the cool modern car features that don't need network connectivity and a fully manual driving mode with optionally replacable batteries (replace them in seconds instead of wait in a queue and charge after an hour)

A TV where you can remove the builtin computer and it can still display hdmi,displayport,etc... and you can reprogram it as you wish.

A phone that can only make calls and stream display input via BLE or other radio from an optional computer that it can physically get attached to, but you can also take this optional computer with you and connect it to a wireless dock to use it as a desktop or laptop or to interface/manage your home automation and security.

I would prefer to donate to someone else to get them to do all this but if the market is strong enough, I don't mind making a lot of money doing it myself either.